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Monday, November 7, 2011

Cool stuff I know about Zoology.

Hey, It's me. I am going to write about Zoology today. I want to be a zoologist once I'm aloud to have a job. Of course I have to go to collage first. But I already know a lot about animals so I'm going to write about cool animal stuff. Genetics, anatomy, behavior, all kinds of stuff. So here I go! Iridescence.
OK so you know how some types of birds are really shiny and colorful? Like humming birds, their feathers are bright, neon colors. Well, they aren't really that color. The feathers are actually gray or white, not neon. The reason they look neon is because the sunlight bounces of the feathers, which act as prisms, and our eyes pick up the bright colors that are reflecting from the feathers. That is why humming birds are very colorful.

Monotremes
Monotremes are mammals that lay eggs. There are three kinds of Monotremes. every one knows about platypuses, O. Anatinus, (who doesn't watch Phineas and Ferb?) but what about the other two? The other two Monotremes are the Short-beak echidna, Tchyglossidea, and the long-beak echidna (same scientific name) when they were first discovered, people could not figure out if they were birds or mammals. it was decided they were mammals, and were given the name Monotereme, which meant primitive mammal.

Genetics of Dogs
Dog's have very interesting genetic adaptions. For one thing, they naturally will go to were a human points. Another thing is, dogs respond to human facial expressions and eye movement. Here is a simple experiment to perform at home that proves my point. Get two bowls, a dog treat, and a dog. Put the treat under one of the bowls, before the dog can see, then get the dog. Have some one hold the dog until you say and point to the bowl with the dog treat, the dog will most likely go to that bowl. then do the experiment with the bowls facing up, and with a treat in both. Point at one and the dog will go to that bowl. That is how god designed them to adapt to people. **WARNING: This will NOT work with cat's.** do the experiment again, this time just looking at the bowls.

Scientific names
Often times the scientific names of animals means something in Latin. For the striped skunk(Mephiitis mephitis) means "stinky stinky", the giraffe (Giraffa Camelopardalis) means "Camel with leopard spots" the gray wolf, (Canis Lupus) means "the wolf dog." Other scientific names are from the discoverer, Like the okapi (Okapia Johnstoni) which was named after Sir Johnston. Many birds were named after Darwin.

Venomous snakes
The easiest way to tell a venomous snake from a non-venomous snake, is the head. Most venomous snakes have a triangular shaped head. the triangular shape is because the snake stores its fangs in it's cheeks. with the exception of a few, this is the easiest way to tell. Another way to tell is to look at the eyes. If the pupil is circular the snake is non venomous. If the pupil is slanted, the snake is most likely venomous. And of course there is the rhyme "Red on yellow deadly fellow, red on black, won't kill Jack".

So now you know some of the stuff I do. It's pretty cool huh? This is anot all the stuff i know, but it's some off the coolest. Thanks for reading, Bri!